Hosts of Isengard destroy the gates in the Battle of the Hornburg

Blasts of fire leaped up from below shaking the stones. Grappling-hooks were hurled, and ladders raised. Again and again the Orcs gained the summit of the outer wall, and again the defenders cast them down.

At last Aragorn stood above the great gates, heedless of the darts of the enemy. ... Then he raised his empty hand, palm outward in token of parley.

The Orcs yelled and jeered. 'Come down!' ... they cried. ... 'Bring out your king! ... We will fetch him from his hole, if he does not come.' ...

'The king stays or comes at his own will,' said Aragorn.

'Then what are you doing here?' they answered. ...

'I looked out to see the dawn,' said Aragorn.

'What of the dawn?' they jeered. 'We are the Uruk-hai ... We come to kill, by sun or moon.' ...

'No enemy has yet taken the Hornburg. Depart, or not one of you ... will be left alive to take back tidings to the North.'

So great a power and royalty was revealed in Aragorn ... that many of the wild men paused, and looked back over their shoulders to the valley.... But the Orcs laughed with loud voices; and a hail of darts and arrows whistled over the wall, as Aragorn leaped down.

There was a roar and a blast of fire. The archway of the gate above which he had stood a moment before crumbled and crashed in smoke and dust. The barricade was scattered as if by a thunderbolt. ...

But even as the gate fell, and the Orcs about it yelled, preparing to charge, a murmur arose behind them ... and it grew to a clamour of many voices crying strange news in the dawn. The Orcs upon the Rock, hearing the rumour of dismay, wavered and looked back. And then, sudden and terrible, from the tower above, the sound of the great horn of Helm rang out.

The Two Towers, LoTR Book 3, Ch 7, Helm's Deep

Contributors:
Elena Tiriel 11Jan05

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